Prince William has never made it a secret he is an avid Aston Villa soccer fan, which is why he was jokingly ‘less than impressed’ with a gift given to him for Prince George.
The 36-year-old royal couldn’t help but playfully grimace when he was presented with a little black and white Newcastle United shirt for his son, during a royal visit to the city this week.
Presented with the gift by Sir Gary Verity, chairman of the Great Exhibition of the North, the Duke of Cambridge jokingly shook his head and raised an eyebrow.
‘Oh my goodness, I don’t know about this,’ William laughed.
‘It’s very kind…This is going to make my football team discussions a lot harder,’ the royal added, pointing to the emblazoned ‘George’ written on the jersey.
Wills has always openly discussed his passion for Aston Villa.
‘A long time ago at school I got into football big time,’ he previously told the BBC.
‘I was looking around for clubs. All my friends at school were either Man United fans or Chelsea fans and I didn’t want to follow the run of the mill teams.
‘I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional roller coaster moments.’
Following the royal’s visit, Sir Gary Verity said: ‘I really feel that a royal visit is the icing on the cake of a hugely successful exhibition, and a testament to the success of the exhibition,’ noting William’s arrival to celebrate the Great Exhibition of the North.
‘If you take nothing else from this exhibition, let it be this: our best is ahead of us, not behind, and I know from talking to the Duke that he is passionate about the North doing even better in the future than we have in the past.
‘We have in him a great ally for our future success.’
